PEET: Sea Cucumbers on Coral Reefs: Systematics of Aspidochirotid Holothurians

珊瑚礁是海洋生物最多样的栖息地，也是最容易受到人类干扰的海洋栖息地。即使是珊瑚礁生物多样性的数量级也知之甚少，但富营养化，过度捕捞和全球变暖威胁着珊瑚礁生态系统的存在。因此，记录珊瑚礁的生物多样性是当务之急，这样就可以获得有关珊瑚礁生物群的多样性、分布和生态作用的基线信息，从而可以对未来的变化进行比较，并做出管理和养护决定。海参是最鲜为人知的大型海洋无脊椎动物之一，特别是在珊瑚礁上。然而，海参是珊瑚礁上最常见和最多样化的大型无脊椎动物之一，也是珊瑚礁碎屑食物网的基石。可能有许多物种仍然没有被发现，正如已经描述的那样。我们对这些引人注目的大型动物的了解落后于许多其他群体，部分原因是很少有科学家专门研究它们，而且大多数科学家都接近或超过了退休年龄。大型的盾手轮虫是这项提案的重点，它是在一个价值数百万美元的海洋生物产业中收获的，并作为美食在亚洲市场出售。随着亚洲经济的增长，对海参的需求也在增加，过度捕捞在热带地区已经成为现实或迫在眉睫的威胁。本项目的目标是通过大规模的合作性系统发育研究、修订和培训，大大提高我们对海参的认识。三名研究生和几名本科生将接受现代系统学的培训，并从事海参研究。PEET学员，PI将与其他海参专家合作，共同记录海参多样性的大部分。渔民优先捕捞的三个主要群体（Stichopodidae，Bohadschia和Actinopyga，包括ca。110种）将进行修订。将开发一个网站，包括所有盾手类的综合数据库，包括所有原始描述和数字的副本，更新的同义词和分类，物种页面，交互式键，图像库，地理信息系统地图和海参分类文献的PDF。该小组将开发一个强大的spidochirotids使用分子和形态学的方法，并探讨他们的进化，生态学，地理学和生物学的假设。系统发育和修订将用于解决有关主要生物过渡（热带-温带，浅-深，礁-礁区之间），海洋物种形成模式，以及海参形态和生态的演变问题。系统发育方法也将有助于描绘物种复合体和确定种群的地理界限。对生物区系有一个分类学上的了解是生态学、保护和管理像珊瑚礁这样的巨大多样性生态系统的重要基础。了解海参的物种层次分类将有助于管理渔业的努力，特别是因为一些捕捞的分类群是未解决的物种复合体，库存限制知之甚少。丰富的摄影和其他文献将促进潜水员，博物学家，渔民和其他人对这些动物的关注和研究。

AbstractCoral reefs harbor the greatest diversity of marine life and are the most vulnerable marine habitats to human disturbances. Even the order of magnitude of reef biodiversity is poorly known, yet eutrophication, overfishing, and global warming threaten the very existence of reef ecosystems. Documenting reef biodiversity is thus of the utmost urgency, so that baseline information becomes available about the diversity, distribution, and ecological roles of reef biota, against which future changes can be compared, and management and conservation decisions made. Sea cucumbers are among the most poorly known large marine invertebrates, especially on coral reefs. Yet sea cucumbers are among the most common and diverse large invertebrates on reefs, and a cornerstone of reef detrital food webs. Likely as many species remain undiscovered as have been described. Our knowledge of these striking, large animals lags behind that of many other groups partly because few scientists specialize on them and most that do are near or past retirement age. Large aspidochirotids, the focus of this proposal, are harvested in a multimillion-dollar beche-de-mer industry and sold as a gourmet food item in Asian markets. As Asian economies grow, demand for beche-de-mer is increasing and overfishing is a reality or an imminent threat in much of the tropics.The objective of this project is to greatly improve our understanding of sea cucumbers through large-scale, collaborative phylogenetic efforts, revisions, and training. Three graduate and several undergraduate students will be trained in modern systematics and pursue research on holothurians. PEET trainees, PIs will work with other holothurian specialists to collaboratively document a large portion of sea cucumber diversity. Three major groups preferentially targeted by fishers (Stichopodidae, Bohadschia and Actinopyga, comprising ca. 110 species) will be revised. A web site will be developed to include a comprehensive database of all aspidochirotids, including copies of all original descriptions and figures, updated synonymies and lassification, species pages, interactive keys, image libraries, GIS maps, and pdfs of the taxonomic literature on sea cucumbers. The group will develop a robust phylogeny of aspidochirotids using molecular and morphological approaches, and explore hypotheses about their evolution, ecology, biogeography, and biology. Phylogenies and revisions will be used to address questions about major biotic transitions (between tropical - temperate, shallow - deep, off reef - reef zones), patterns of marine speciation, and evolution of holothurian morphology and ecology. The phylogenetic approach will also help delineate species complexes and identify geographic limits of stocks. Having a taxonomic understanding of the biota is essential foundation for work on the ecology, conservation, and management of megadiversity ecosystems like coral reefs. Understanding the species-level taxonomy of sea cucumbers will facilitate efforts to manage fisheries, especially as several fished taxa are in unresolved species complexes, and stock limits are poorly understood. The abundant photographic and other documentation will foster attention and study of these animals by divers, naturalists, fisherman, and others.